L. David Marquet > Quotes

“Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“One of the things that limits our learning is our belief that we already know something.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“You may be able to “buy” a person’s back with a paycheck, position, power, or fear, but a human being’s genius, passion, loyalty, and tenacious creativity are volunteered only.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“If you want people to to think, give them intent, not instruction.”
― David Marquet

“People who are treated as followers treat others as followers when it’s their turn to lead.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“If all you need to do is what you are told, then you don’t need to understand your craft. However, as your ability to make decisions increases, then you need intimate technical knowledge on which to base those decisions.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“The leader-leader structure is fundamentally different from the leader-follower structure. At its core is the belief that we can all be leaders and, in fact, it’s best when we all are leaders. Leadership is not some mystical quality that some possess and others do not. As humans, we all have what it takes, and we all need to use our leadership”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“The problem with specifying the method along with the goal is one of diminished control. Provide your people with the objective and let them figure out the method.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Focusing on avoiding mistakes takes our focus away from becoming truly exceptional. Once a ship has achieved success merely in the form of preventing major errors and is operating in a competent way, mission accomplished, there is no need to strive further.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Those who take orders usually run at half speed, underutilizing their imagination and initiative.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Don’t move information to authority, move authority to the information.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“The leader-leader model not only achieves great improvements in effectiveness and morale but also makes the organization stronger. Most critically, these improvements are enduring, decoupled from the leader’s personality and presence. Leader-leader structures are significantly more resilient, and they do not rely on the designated leader always being right. Further, leader-leader structures spawn additional leaders throughout the organization naturally. It can’t be stopped.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“When the performance of a unit goes down after an officer leaves, it is taken as a sign that he was a good leader, not that he was ineffective in training his people properly.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“leadership is the enabling art.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn The Ship Around!

“Achieve excellence, don’t just avoid errors (this was introduced in chapter 7). Build trust and take care of your people. Use your legacy for inspiration. Use guiding principles for decision criteria. Use immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviors. Begin with the end in mind. Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“When an organization does worse immediately after the departure of a leader, what does this say about that person’s leadership?”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Taking care of your people does not mean protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior. That’s the path to irresponsibility. What it does mean is giving them every available tool and advantage to achieve their aims in life, beyond the specifics of the job.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“As you work with individuals in your organization to develop their vision for the future, it is crucial that you establish specific, measurable goals. These goals will help the individuals realize their ambitions. In addition, you as a mentor have to establish that you are sincerely interested in the problems of the person you are mentoring. By taking action to support the individual, you will prove that you are indeed working in their best interest and always keeping the end in mind.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Leadership is not some mystical quality that some possess and others do not. As humans, we all have what it takes, and we all need to use our leadership abilities in every aspect of our work life.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Begin with the End in Mind”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“What we need is release, or emancipation. Emancipation is fundamentally different from empowerment. With emancipation we are recognizing the inherent genius, energy, and creativity in all people, and allowing those talents to emerge. We realize that we don’t have the power to give these talents to others, or “empower” them to use them, only the power to prevent them from coming out. Emancipation results when teams have been given decision-making control and have the additional characteristics of competence and clarity. You know you have an emancipated team when you no longer need to empower them. Indeed, you no longer have the ability to empower them because they are not relying on you as their source of power.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“control without competence is chaos.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Ultimately, the most important person to have control over is yourself—for it is that self-control that will allow you to “give control, create leaders.” I believe that rejecting the impulse to take control and attract followers will be your greatest challenge and, in time, your most powerful and enduring success.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Focusing on avoiding mistakes takes our focus away from becoming truly exceptional.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“People who are treated as followers have the expectations of followers and act like followers. As followers, they have limited decision-making authority and little incentive to give the utmost of their intellect, energy, and passion.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“Control, we discovered, only works with a competent workforce that understands the organization’s purpose. Hence, as control is divested, both technical competence and organizational clarity need to be strengthened”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“But leadership is about making the lives of others easier, not blaming them. Leadership is about the hard work of taking responsibility for how our actions and words affect the lives of others.”
― L. David Marquet, Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say--and What You Don't

“empowerment still results from and is a manifestation of a top-down structure. At its core is the belief that the leader “empowers” the followers, that the leader has the power and ability to empower the followers.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Why do we need empowerment? Do you need someone else to empower you? How reliant is your organization on the decision making of one person, or a small group of people? What kind of leadership model does your business or organization use? When you think of movie images that depict leadership, who/what comes to mind? What assumptions are embedded in those images? How do these images influence how you think about yourself as a leader? To what extent do these images limit your growth as a leader?”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

“disempowered phrases” that passive followers use: Request permission to . . . I would like to . . . What should I do about . . . Do you think we should . . . Could we . . . Here is a short list of “empowered phrases” that active doers use: I intend to . . . I plan on . . . I will . . . We will . . .”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders